As the people of Kogi celebrate the 25th anniversary of the creation of the state, some stakeholders have applauded the governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello for the rapid transformation and development that is taking place in the State under his watch.
Specifically, they applauded the governor for the massive rehabilitation of rural and urban roads in the sState, as well as the attention to the welfare and security interests of the people, which is the primary purpose of government.
The Kogi Democratic Forum (KDF), comprising leaders of thought from the State, made this commendation in a statement in Abuja as part of events marking the 25th anniversary of the creation of the state.
Leader of the group, Alhaji Ozigi Omeiza, in the statement, observed that there is paradigm shift in the political governance of the state, which has resulted into an equitable and balanced distribution of appointments and development projects among the three geo-political and cultural groups in the state.
He claimed that no part of the state is being left out in the scheme of things as all the on-going projects especially, roads rehabilitation and other infrastructural facilities such as water schemes, schools, health care delivery and agriculture are being fairly distributed across the three senatorial zones of the state.
According to the leader, “The emergence of the Bello administration is providential. We are very grateful to God who brought him on board at this point in time to salvage our state from the grips of backwardness and forces of retrogression. He has been fair-minded in the way and manner he is distributing development projects in the state. No part of the Kogi is being left out in the scheme of things.”
Omeiza also commended Bello for mobilizing contractors back to all the road projects abandoned in the 21 local government areas of the state by the preceding administration.
KDF noted that the on-going remedial works on the strategic roads in the state have brought a lot of relief to the people of Kogi and other commuters that must of necessity pass through Kogi to other parts of the country.
This was also as the group observed that the anti-corruption programme of the governor was yielding results as he had taken bold steps to block all known areas of financial leakages in the economy of the state through the institutionalisation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which ensured that all revenues of the state are never diverted into secret or private accounts.
Omeiza and his group further commended the administration of Bello for commissioning a staff audit of the state civil service with a view to weeding out ghost workers who have constituted a major drain on the lean resources of the state.
The staff verification exercise according to the group was hugely successful as about sixteen thousand ghost workers were identified and expunged from the payroll of the state.
This, they noted, translated to a saving of a whopping N18 billion annually which would now be deployed to provide key infrastructure and other important amenities in the state.
The group also gave kudos to the governor for “the commendable progress he has made in the area of security,” which, they noted is evident in the strategic partnership the governor has forged with the nation’s military high command.
The partnership, according to Omeiza, has resulted into a high-level visit of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to Governor Bello in Lokoja where he pledged to deploy troops to critical roads in the state with a view to routing out kidnappers, armed robbers, cultists, bandits and other sundry criminals that have made lives unbearable for Kogi citizens and commuters especially on the dreaded Lokoja-Okene road.
